Most of Mississippi’s 50 libraries (none omitted) are poorly funded: only 10% spend at least $21 per capita, compared to 72% of the nation’s public libraries. As you might expect, use is also low: no library circulates eight or more items per capita and only 16% circulate at least four items (compared to 79% overall). Expenditures do track with circulation. Patron visits are also on the low side—16% have at least four per capita, compared to 65% overall. Only 10% of the libraries have at least 0.3 program attendance per capita (54% overall) and just over one-third (36%) have at least one PC use per capita (compared to 57% overall).

Libraries by legal service area

LSA

Count

%

3,000-3,999

1

2.0%

6,800-8,699

3

6.0%

8,700-11,099

3

6.0%

11,100-14,099

4

8.0%

18,500-24,999

2

4.0%

25,000-34,499

6

12.0%

34,500-53,999

11

22.0%

54,000-104,999

15

30.0%

105,000-4.1 mill.

5

10.0%

Circulation per Capita and Spending per Capita

Circulation per capita correlates strongly (0.68) with spending per capita.

Circulation per capita plotted against spending per capita

Circulation per capita (rounded) occurrence by spending category

Note that there are no libraries in the $31-$52 or $73+ spending categories.

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